By Keely Sudhoff, PhD

Some of my fondest scientific discussions in
graduate school occurred while eating lunch with fellow students
and post-docs. Here we would hash out problems, discuss
hypotheses, and defend the merits of our research. For me,
pairing food and scientific discourse is a natural, welcomed
event. That is why I was over-the-top excited at the idea of
performing a scientific experiment which involved consuming food
and bedeviling my sense of taste.

Miracle Fruit, a plant indigenous to West Africa,
finally made its way to Lab Central here in Expedition
Health. Chef Ian Kleinman of The Inventing Room, walked into
the lab well equipped to provide our sense of taste with a new
experience. His cooler was jam-packed with ice and buried in
the depths were these lovely, small, red berries called Miracle
Fruit. He also brought with him grapefruit, pickle juice,
lemons, limes, strawberries, tea, and pickle juice. Chef
Kleinman came to the museum to provide the staff at lab central
with our first foray into "flavor
tripping"!

Miracle fruit contains a substance called miraculin
and this protein makes sour or acidic things taste sweet. We
first ingested the berries and then began to eat the buffet of sour
food; it was a fantastically interesting and fun experience.
We literally closed our eyes with delight at the sweetness of
lemons, limes, and grapefruits - all without a hint of the expected
sourness. We had never tasted strawberries or pickle juice so
sweet.

As we sat in the laboratory delighting in the
wonderful tastes of lemons and limes, we noticed one of our
youngest volunteers eyeing us incredulously. "Are you eating
lemons?" Annie queried with slight hesitation. We shared with
Annie the secret of our enjoyment... Miracle Fruit, which she
happily tried (with permission from her mother)! Did Annie
enjoy the sour fruit? Look at the photos below and you can
see why she asked for seconds! Importantly, the effects of
Miracle Fruit are reversible and the sour taste of the fruit
returned within 40 minutes of tasting the
berries.

How can eating a Miracle Fruit, make sour and acidic
foods, taste sweet? Scientists have a few ideas, but more
research needs to be performed. It is postulated that
miraculin interacts with the sweet receptor on the tongue and that
acidic foods play an important role in miraculin
activation. Scientists are especially intrigued by the
possibility that miraculin could play a role as an alternative
sweetener.